Voices from the Trenches

Letters to Home

by Noel Carthew

Quick Overview

As 1914 drew to a close, little did anyone in Australia know that four years of warfare lay ahead. Mothers could not foresee the anguish they would suffer, nor wives and sweethearts their heartbreak.

This is the true story of three brothers, Charles, Fred and James Carthew, as told through the letters they wrote from Gallipoli, North Africa, Palestine and the Western Front, to their mother and sisters back home in Victoria. The Carthew brothers participated in some of history's most legendary battles, but theirs is more than a story of guns and bullets - it is also a love story; for their womenfolk and their country; of the affection and loyalty between a young officer and his men. Above all, it's a tribute to the steadfast mateship of over 300,000 young Anzacs who fought, and sometimes died for each other, in the Great War of 1914-1918.